Here is the his latest take on Newt and Perry. It is impossible to link to his “Goldberg File” but the guys at NR are working on fixing that. If you want to get it every week, go to NROnline and sign up. It is a must read for me every week.
I think I’ve figured it out. Newt’s entire staff didn’t really quit. They are going deep undercover, spreading out throughout the competing campaigns waiting for their moment. Then, when the time is right, they will be activated like sleepers in Telefon, only instead of a line from a Robert Frost poem the activation code will be something like Newt saying during a debate, “Brother, can you paradigm?” Then, suddenly, they will rise and fight for their One True Master, like the apes feigning death in Battle for the Planet of the Apes when Caesar shouted, “Now, fight like apes!” Newt shall bellow, “Now, flight like Tofflerians!” and lo and behold, the Gingroids will rise, rise, I tell you, and they will fight like they are winning the future.
Okay, maybe not. But that’s at least a happier theory than what appears to be the reality. Newt and Callista are turning into the Salahis of conservative politics (the Salahis, recall, were that garish couple who crashed the state dinner and parlayed that into a mortifying run on Real Housewives of D.C.). I feel bad saying it because I honestly believe Newt deserves better (Callista: Mmm, not as much). But it is hard to remember a better example of a brilliant leader so misreading the political climate and his place in it than Newt in these last months.
The truth, of course, is that such mistakes aren’t made in a day. They involve years of careful delusion. Still, I think it’s sad.
He has a lot more to say about Perry, but I thought this was the best line.
One last point, since I raised it on Twitter yesterday. I think there’s a non-trivial possibility that Rick Perry turns out to be this cycle’s Fred Thompson.
